Filmmaker receives ABC grant
Julie G. Cho '92 received a $20,000 scholarship grant from ABC Television on July 25, 2001.

She will create a television pilot for an original series, "Color of Law," which follows two new agents in the hate crimes unit of the FBI.

Long a fan of cinema and television, Cho was compelled to stand behind the camera and actually make film thanks to the Asian American studies class she took at Bryn Mawr in 1991 that was taught by Jean Wu, former associate dean and director of the Division of Special Studies (now at Tufts University).

"It was there that I saw, for the first time in my life, stories about Asian Americans, written and produced by Asian Americans," says Cho. "It was a tremendous moment of both liberation and empowerment. Of course, I would discover over the next 10 years how little I knew back then, how much I needed to learn, and how many mistakes I'd make in the process. I'm still learning. But it's been an exhilarating journey."

Cho sees filmmaking as an extension of sociology, her major. "Good sociology, as my professors would instill, compels you out of the classroom and into the world," she says. "My major taught me to get underneath the statistics, to be fully aware of the stories and human relations that are more complicated and unpredictable than any number can tell you."

Cho took her first filmmaking class as a Bryn Mawr student at the University of Pennsylvania, where she edited super8 films in a stuffy converted janitor's closet, using BMC and Haverford classmates as actors.

From Bryn Mawr Cho went to Northwestern University for her master's in radio, television and film, and then received an MFA from the the University of California, Los Angeles School of Theater, Film and Television in film and television directing. She recently received another grant to produce a documentary of Japanese American swing and jazz musicians before, during and after their World War II internment experience. Her previous short film, "bubblehead," has been featured at several film festivals.

Cho was nominated for the ABC grant by East West Players, the oldest and largest Asian Pacific American theater in the United States, and was among three Asian American filmmakers selected in a nationwide search. In addition to the cash prize, the winners receive a mentor for one year to help them develop their projects. Cho's mentor is Sue Johnson, director of talent development at ABC Daytime.